LOOKING FOR SUPPORT – Lou Masiello of W/S Development LLC listens to a question from Laura Cronin at the March 11 meeting of the Greater Hyannis Civic Association.

Cape Town Plaza leaseholder makes case to buy airport property

With headwinds from the airport commission keeping his company from landing the purchase of Cape Town Plaza, a representative of W/S Development LLC tried to take on more fuel this week by speaking to the Greater Hyannis Civic Association.

Louis Masiello, W/S’s director of development, came to the Association’s board meeting March 11 armed with before and after slides of other distressed properties the company has resuscitated in the last decade-plus. He said W/S assumed the lease for the airport-owned property on Route 132 in Hyannis because it is a redeveloper, eager to improve the deteriorating strip of stores.

CORRECTEDWith the lease set to expire in 2024, Masiello said, Cape Town is beginning to enter a countdown during which it will be difficult to attract stores and financing for improvements unless long-term arrangements can be worked out with the airport commission.

By long-term, Masiello means at least a 50-year lease, or outright purchase. But, he noted, the airport commission is concerned about keeping things competitive as far as the master lease renewal in CORRECTED2024 and getting a wide variety of bids.

Masiello said his company is eager to compete for control of the future of the property. “W/S Development became the tenant a little over a year ago,” he said, “with hopes of redeveloping, reinvesting, and reinvigorating the property.”

As members watched, Masiello’s slides clicked by. There was the shopping mall in Hingham off Route 3 that had hosted such as Half-Price Harry’s. Within a few years of W/S taking, over, said Masiello, Derby Street Shoppes emerged complete with a Williams Sonoma, a Talbot’s, and a Whole Foods… and a whole new look, mirroring village centers with sidewalks, plantings, and a variety of buildings that appeared to have evolved over decades rather than been slapped together overnight.

Masiello said Cape Town Plaza was leased in 1968. The original rent was $6,000 a year, with escalators bringing it to $70,000 in 2024.

There’s now a 13 percent vacancy rate, he said, but that doesn’t include the outlets who are still making lease payments but decided it wasn’t worth keeping their stores open.

Since taking over the lease, W/S has brought in Sports Authority, Old Navy, and has just made over a building on the property for Verizon.

“We believe this property is at a real turning point,” Masiello said, both for growth potential or for further deterioration.

W/S would prefer to buy rather than enter a very long-term lease, but is open to that option, according to Masiello.

One sticking point for a potential sale is that, by Federal Aviation Administration rules, proceeds from airport land must stay with the airport. That, Masiello noted, would be the case for whatever entity buys it from the airport; those restrictions would not apply to further sales.

W/S believes the site has potential. Masiello said there are about 244,000 square feet of developed space on the 25 acres, which could be increased to 300,000 or 350,000. He noted that the plaza is “over-parked” with an excess of spaces.

Masiello said he believes the airport commission “would like to see something better happen, but is reluctant to deal with a transaction until the end of the lease” due to FAA regulations and the required bidding process.

Asked by an Association member what W/S would pay for the property, Masiello said that number would be more appropriately discussed in a bidding process, but he did say the land itself is valued at $6 million, $20 million when the buildings are added.